What a day it (nearly) was at the World Seniors yesterday. In Round 1, Andy was playing GM Yrjo Rantanen of Finland. The fact that he now has an Elo of 2283 tells you he is not the man he once was. And the game proved it. He threw the kitchen sink (also known as the h pawn) at Andy, but our man responded by attacking even more ferociously down the a, b and c files against the White king. Stockfish gave him +4, but unfortunately that was with Black to move! Still he was +1 or 2 for a long period of the game, but then disaster (old age) struck. Andy's attack petered out and the GM finally started to get some kingside play. It was still equal, but Andy had lost tne thread and committed a blunder that was about on a par with mine at Crewe station the previous day. A very near miss, and a real choker after playing so well. And the win would have given England 3 a shock victory over the number 8 seeds, who today will unleash their second GM, the rather better known Heikki Westerinen.
Meanwhile I was playing a much lower rated player from Sweden 4 in my role as Board 1 for England 2. I was slightly better for most of the game, but not really getting anywhere despite having the 2 bishops. He offered a draw, but I turned it down (of course) and then played a terrible move which just lost a pawn for nothing. I staked everything on an unconvincing attack down the a file but meanwhile Black started hoovering up my kingside pawns after prising open the centre with a timely f6 break. I was busted, but for once Caissa took pity on me and what she tooketh away mosr cruellyfrom Andy she donated to me, most undeservedly. Black took the wrong pawn, and found himself obliged to give up an exchange, but he had so many pawns he was still winning. But he missed an only move that would have kept his advantage and allowed me to cut his king off on the back rank. I just needed to get my other rook in the game and it was curtains. He hopped around with his knight, but it ran out of good squares, and with my king getting all the way to d8, a mating net emerged and I had luckily won a game I should have lost! And England 2 beat Sweden 4 by 3.5-0.5.
It was actually England vs Scandinavia everywhere you looked:-
50+
England 1 4-0 Oslo
England 2 3.5-0.5 Finland Sisu (aaarrrgggghhhh!!!!)
England 3 0.5-3.5 Finland 1
65+
England 1 4-0 Sweden 3
England 2 3.5-0.5 Sweden 4
England 3 1.5-2.5 Finland 3 (Really Finland 1 in the 65+, but there's some strange numbering going on here!)
Many of the favourites rested their biggest names, but there were still plenty of legends in action. And they didn't have it all their own way. Joel Benjamin was held to a draw by a Scot rated only 2132, while France's 4 IMs could only muster 1.5 points against Norway's sub 2200 team.
Today both Andy and I have IM opponents, so don't expect too much good news in the next report. But as I've (a) managed to switch to a room with a seaview and (b) found the apostrophe on Andy's tablet's keyboard, I feel like a winner already today!
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